Sleeping on the job? That's OK

Nara Schoenberg, Tribune Newspapers

During one of the most exciting and productive times in my career, I used to sneak away from the office for half hour or so in the early afternoon and, well, nap.

I napped sitting up, in a quiet corner of a busy shopping mall, and when I was done, I felt like a new person: Better, stronger, able to buckle down and do another four to six hours of intense, exacting and unremitting work.

Turns out that remarkable renewal wasn't all in my head.

At a time when the firing of three air traffic controllers has fueled a national debate over planned napping as an antidote to workplace fatigue, the scientific evidence for snoozing on the job is actually fairly strong.

A recent overview of nap studies, published in 2009 in the Journal of Sleep Research, found that that the benefits of napping have been confirmed by many researchers. Napping has been shown to improve mood, reaction time and logical reasoning, and to reduce fatigue.

Not bad for as little as 10 minutes of sleep.

So why was I napping on the sly? And why did I so often see another person in business attire (or the arts-oriented equivalent) snoozing along with me in a furnished nook behind the shopping mall escalator?

William Anthony, a Boston University professor and author of "The Art of Napping," thinks he knows.

"Napping has been seen as slothful—indicative of laziness and boredom—when, in fact, the opposite is true," he says. So those who put their faith in the benefits of a brief snooze find themselves where I did: in the napping underground.

"We interview hundreds of secret nappers" in the course of writing the book, Anthony says.

Among the lessons he learned:

"One popular spot was the bathroom—you go in there and close the stall door. No one would dare open the door and it's locked on the inside."

Other successful strategies included stealth napping in your car during lunch, napping in an empty room, and napping while telecommuting.

"It's nice to have a colleague who can cover for you," Anthony observes. You can repay the favor by acting as a lookout when he or she naps.

"We have all sorts of very creative nappers—and they're probably not seen napping because their colleges are napping and their bosses are in their offices with the doors closed, napping," Anthony says.

He advises would-be nappers to schedule the snooze, which allows for a more planning and creativity, and to focus on the value of the nap.

"You have to feel confident," he says. "You've got to announce to yourself: 'I'm doing something that's good for me.' "